Configuring The Chassis To Operate In E Mode Or M Mode; Table 15 Boot Mode At Startup - Nortel Passport 8000 Series Installing And Maintaining

80 Chapter 4 Operating the Passport 8000 Series switch

Configuring the chassis to operate in E mode or M mode

The Passport 8600 system has two modes of operation: E mode and M mode.
E mode is the default mode and supports up to 32,000 table entries in the system
M mode supports up to 128,000 table entries in the system. For full support of M
mode (128,000 table entries) the following configuration conditions are required:
• The chassis must include at least one 8691SF CPU module. If the chassis
includes a 8690SF module, the mode defaults to E mode.
• All modules installed in the chassis must support 128,000 table entries (these
are referred to as M modules and include the 8632TXM, 8648TXM,
8608GBM, 8608GTM, 8683POSM, 8672ATMM, 8672ATMM, 8681XLR
and 8681XLW).
• M modules require 8000 Series Release 3.3 or later.
• M mode must be enabled. For instructions on enabling M mode, see
Managing Platform Operations.
When you configure a chassis you need to ensure that a system having both M
mode and E mode modules will reboot in the desired mode. The boot mode is
determined by the type of modules installed in the chassis and whether 128K
mode is enabled

Table 15 Boot mode at startup

if configuration is:
All M modules
Mixed modules
All non-M modules
All M modules
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Note: If M mode is enabled and one or more modules installed in the
chassis is an E module (32,000 table entries), the E modules will be
disabled. This protects the system forwarding tables from lost entries.
For instructions on enabling or disabling M mode, refer to Managing
Platform Operations.
(Table 15).
And M mode status at
startup is:
Enabled
Enabled
Enabled
Disabled
Then:
System starts in M mode
System starts in M mode.
Non-M modules are
disabled.
Non-M modules are
disabled.
System starts in E mode